Colonial Taipei : a family caught in Japanese time and space

Abstract

This thesis examines Taipei's urban geography during the Japanese colonial period (18951945) by studying the everyday life of indigenous people and their perception of Colonial Taipei. A new urban regime was imposed on Taiwanese people by the Colonial Government. This forced them to find ways of negotiating with Japanese colonial space. The study draws attention to Taiwanese women by investigating their geographical world in Colonial Taipei. In particular the study examines Colonial Taipei through the eyes of my maternal family. Most attention is focused on my grandmother who was born in 1900 at the beginning of Japanese colonisation. Through comprehensive interviews with her and intensive archival research, I have portrayed her geographical world. While Taiwanese people were gradually and forcefully assimilated into adopting a Japanese lifestyle, my grandmother adhered to her Chinese lifestyle. Having established her own social and private space in colonial Taipei, she used it stubbornly to maintain an independent sense of self and her own place in the world. This position has reflected both her actual geographical experience and her imagination. This study demonstrates how Japanese colonialism subtly penetrated the everyday life and space of Taiwanese people living in Taipei. Young Taiwanese were closely involved in the assimilation process and they became Japanese-oriented. Only Chinese women preserved their 'Chineseness' inside their neighborhood as, without a Japanese education, they were excluded from colonial society. They escaped from being 'colonised' by exercising quiet but eloquent resistance towards Japanese influences.